Sunday, October 18, 2009

Iphone Music Playback Sound Stops when ...

I just installed a new Pioneer DEH-P710BT ( http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Products/CarAudioVideo/In-Dash/CD-Players/Premier/DEH-P710BT ) Receiver in my car, and the Iphone connection works great, but after I set up the Bluetooth connection I noticed a bug.

The Receiver has the ability to connect to the Iphone via Bluetooth to allow Phone calls to go through it aswell as stream music and all other sounds from the Iphone through bluetooth, and that ability is enabled soon as you pair the Iphone with the Receiver. Bluetooth Audio playback is used by selecting the BT Audio source from the receiver.

After about 10-12 second after turning the car on the Bluetooth phone syncs then after around another 10 seconds the BT Audio syncs/enables (both are shown by their respective icon/light showing up when they sync/become available).

Soon as the BT Audio light pops up, the music from the Iphone (Connected with the standard USB sync cable) cuts out, but the song still progresses, and songs can be changed, but the actual sound isnt getting passed through. Whether its an issue with the Receiver or the Iphone I cant be sure. Unfortunately you cant disable BT audio separately from the BT Phone sync, so you have both or none.

You can work around this by disconnecting the Iphone and reconnecting it after the BT audio syncs, changing audio sources then changing back after BT audio syncs or simply waiting around 23 seconds from the receiver going on to plug the Iphone in (thats how long it takes for the BT Audio to auto connect). This also only happens if its playing from the Iphone source when the receiver turns on (or if you manage to switch to it in under the ~23 seconds it takes for BT Audio to establish a conection). Disabling the Bluetooth pairing also removes this, but I rather not loose the phone syncing fuctionality.

BT audio isnt actually getting streamed (but does work if Iphone is unplugged) when the Iphone is plugged in due to it still being in use from the standard sync cable, so its not that the audio has swapped output sources, but more like just establishing the connection cuts it.